Thursday, September 1, 2011

Make an Outdoor Rug

It’s funny because other than making a raised garden bed and transplanting plants we already had, Husband and I didn’t expect the front garden and porch to be my summer project. Funny how projects snowball, eh?

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A big outdoor rug would ground everything on the porch and help create an outdoor room to enjoy with the new view.

I priced large outdoor bamboo rugs. Did you hear that? That was the sound of my wallet groaning at the price of the rug I liked.

When I can’t buy, I DIY!

I had a small roll of vinyl flooring the builder left us in the For The Love of Mike, Donate This Junk to The Restore Already! pile. You most likely don't have anything remotely similar in your neat and tidy houses, I am sure.

I drew and cut a few designs from scrap paper before I cut anything for keeps. Next, I traced a plate to round the corners I free handed the rest of the design. I cut along the lines with a pair of supposed to cut through everything scissors.

My regular dishes are not round. This lone paper plate is the only round plate I have. I composted the plate when I finished the project.

I used the cut end of the rug as a pattern to trace the design on the other parts of the floor cloth.

I’m feeling clever I came up with this idea to ensure everything is symmetrical.

I am getting miles of use out of that $5.00 gallon of oops paint, I tell ya!

Even though I know many of you try to avoid hunks of extra plastic, I highly recommend buying a spray paint trigger. Using a spray paint trigger not only saves me from a painful case of Spray Paint Finger but allows me to spray a more even coat and amount of paint on my projects. I think I use less paint on a project with a spray can handle than without. To me, it is worth having. As always, your mileage may vary.

I wanted to add a pop of color to the center of my floor cloth. I didn’t want to take a chance on ruining my floor cloth with a stencil mishap when it was so close to being finished. I made paper patterns of a W and retro shapes in Photoshop. I used the patterns to cut the items out of the remaining bits of vinyl.

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